How to Communicate in the Music Industry

How to Communicate in the Music IndustryHow to Communicate in the Music IndustryThe music business, in general, is not as formal as some other businesses.Working in jeans is pretty normal, and sometimes work involves listening to live music and having a few drinks. But the thing that often separates those who can make a living in the music industry from those who cant is the ability to enjoy these benefits while taking the job seriously. In reality, working in music really is hard work and its important to maintain a certain level of professionalism. One of the most basic ways to demonstrate your professionalism is the way you communicate with your colleagues in the music industry. Whether youre a musician approaching a record label, a label approaching a distributor or a wannabe manager reaching out to an established manager for some advice, being professional matters. Here are a few things to keep in mind. Get to the Point Keep your communications on point and as short as possi ble. Include all required information the person on the other end might need in order to respond to you. Clearly state what you want, or what youre asking for. Make sure the subject line of your email is succinct, lest it gets caught up in the recipients massenmail filter. If youve never communicated before with the person youre emailing, dont assume too casual or informal a tone. Be polite. Dont Be Too Casual Avoid using slang spellings for words (ie, U R instead of you are, replacing all your s letters with z and so on), typing lIkE tHiS, or swearing, especially when making the first contact. You might be able to get away with that when you and the recipient are old friends, but dont assume anything. These less formal ways to communicate may have a place, but not in business emails or letters. Respect Boundaries Just because you know someones cell phone number doesnt mean you should call them at 1 a.m. with your question. Dont show up at someones office uninvited and dont use the magic of the internet to track down someones home number and/or address. In this day and age, that kind of infringement on someones personal privacy is not going to go over well. Dont Lose Your Temper Never lose your cool with someone youre in a business relationship with. Even if they blow you off, resist the urge to retaliate. If someone speaks to you in an unprofessional manner, try to take the high road. Its hard, but the music industry is a small place. Youll build a reputation that will get around quickly, and it may be hard to shed. Be Courteous When someone does something to help you, thank them. Return calls when you say you will, and dont leave someone waiting for a response. If you show youre reliable and treat people with goodwill, its more likely that youll receive that kind of treatment in return. Every time you treat someone well and stick to communicating like a professional, it will only burnish your reputation in the music industry. Keep it in mind every time you write an email or make a phone call.

Drinking in the Possibilities

Drinking in the Possibilities Drinking in the Possibilities Drinking in the PossibilitiesFor too much of the world, milk and its critical, sometimes life-savingnutrients seem like a luxury.However, aStanford University kollektiv hopes to alleviate this problem with asystem for creating healthier liquidsusing pulsed electric field (PEF) technology. A finalist for the MIT Clean Energy Prize, the creators of this system have a strong commitment to the milk challenge. Essentially we developed a new power supply that was small, efficient, and relatively cheap, and we were looking for potential applications for it, says team member Luke Raymond, who is pursuing his Ph.D. in electrical engineering. One we saw was PEF. For this, if you have a liquid which has bacteria inside the liquid and you place an electric field through that liquid, the cell walls of the bacteria become polarized and they stretch. If the electric field is high enough, you can actually rip apart the cell wall just by app lying this high-voltage pulse through the liquid, says Raymond. The concept, he explains, can be applied to milk as a non-thermal method of pasteurization, an alternative to heating up the liquid to a very high temperature and cooling it back down againa processthat is very energy intensive. Sarah Rizk demonstrating the core processor of a milk pasteurization unit developed by Luke Raymond. Image Vorpal Raymond says that power supply has always been a barrier for PEF technology. The voltage required resulted in it being inherently very expensive and, if youre doing this on a large industrial scale, it couldnt compete with the thermal level of pasteurization, he adds. The Stanford team, therefore, saw an opportunity to develop a more portable and modular approach. ur thought was to bring the pulse electric field process to any kind of liquid, but particularlyto milk in emerging countries. Theyre dealing with major problems such as spoilage, he says. A lot of milk in those countries i snt pasteurized and a decent amount of the milk goes bad before it even can get to a pasteurization facility, he adds. Raymond explains how the full system works. Its the power supply portion which is what we developed that delivers high-voltage pulses, then theres the electro portion where all the magic happens in terms of the liquid, he says. Thats two stainless-steel tubes separated by an insulator and one connects to the positive supply of the output, one to the negative. As the liquid flows through this tube with the insulator in between, theres a pulse of electric fields that is generated between the two stainless-steel electrodes. The liquid then gets exposed to these pulses of the high voltage. Were at about 500 milliliters per minute in terms of the flow rate and would ultimately like to be closer totwo liters per minute says Raymond. Their goal, he says, is also to create what would purify on the order of 100 liters of water from about the energy stored in a common househo ld 9V battery and theyd like the weight of the product to be roughlyten pounds. The potential financial impact? In theory, we would use only 25 per centof the energy of thermal pasteurization and we want to keep the products price under $1000, he says. He emphasizes that theyre not trying to replace thermal pasteurization, but want to offer an opportunity for those who might need an alternative When you consider the importance of milk, anything that can help needs to be considered. Eric Butterman is an independent writer. Learn more about innovative technologies and energy solutions at ASMEs Power Energy Conference and Exhibition. For Further DiscussionOur thought was to bring the pulse electric field process to any kind of liquid but particularly for milk in emerging countries.Luke Raymond, Stanford University

How you can achieve big results from small wins

How you can achieve big results from small winsHow you can achieve big results from small winsHabit is persistence in practice. - ?Octavia ButlerIm a big fan of micro habits.A micro-habit is a small, simple action that doesnt require much motivation, but will help you achieve just about anything in life.Few repeated actions, done everyday, so discreet that they could easily go unleidiced.Thats how long-term habits are formed.Thats how you change behaviour.Not radical pursuit of good habits.If you improve every area of your life in small steps, you will become unstoppable.The one percent margin for improvement in everything you do is one of the best ways to build new habits.Its so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small gains on a daily basis.Everything meaningful takes timeOvernight success is a myth.You cant achieve extraordinary results without putting in the work consistently.Almost every habit that you have built ove r the years?- ?good or bad?- ?is the result of many small decisions you have made over time.Improving by just 1 percent isnt noticeable but it makes the most difference.Jim Rohn once said Success is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. ?There is power in small wins and slow gains.The differences between expert performers, creatives, and normal professionals reflect a life-long persistence of deliberate, purposeful effort to improve performance.Tiger Woods started when he was 2 years old.Serena Williams started playing at 3, Venus Williams at 4.They committed to deep, sustained immersion in purposeful practice.Small gains every day.Commander Hadfield, the astronaut, improved his skills every day for 20 years before getting into space.Kurt Vonnegut wrote every day for 25 years before he had a major bestseller.Mozart had clocked up 3500 hours by the time he was 6 and had studied his chosen profession for 18 years before he wrote his Piano concerto No 9 at the age of 21.Einstein spent almost all his productive life working on the theory of relativity.Nobody wins in huge burstsLanding on your butt twenty thousand times is where great performance comes from says Geoff Calvin.One mistake people make over and over when they want to get mora do or achieve a goal is trying to do too much all at once.Productivity is a process, not an achievement.The most productive people you know or have read about do not rely on huge bursts and then stop working.They grow constantly in tiny, almost invisible increments.This is the Japanese process of kaizen, or continuous, gradual progress.Kaizen can be used to build new habits or change bad ones.The same process applies to starting a business or learning something new.It is better to make an imperfect, incomplete start with a new app or project and become 1% more efficient tomorrow than to wait until you have fully researched your options or understand the industry to take actionInstead of trying to do everything within the shortest time, focus on 1% increments.Habits dont change in a day.But 1% a day makes every habit work. Every.If you relax and give yourself permission to only improve a little each day, then a good habit works.?Practice makes habits.?If you insist the habit changes within the shortest possible time, you are bound to fail.?Pick the easiest change, improve it each day by 1% and dont stop until its routine. Thats how change happens. ?Do not underestimate the power of micro-improvements.Improving by 1 percent every day or week is achievable?- ?regardless of your circumstances.If youre currently encountering resistance with your goals, remember the words of Karen Lamb A year from now, you will have wished youd started today.Initiation is the hardestEvery journey, no matter how small requires initiation. After that forward motion kicks in it and leads toward momentum.Its like choosing to build a new habit. The first acti on usually takes more energy emotionally and mentally than the ones that follow.The discipline of the first step is insanely important.What follows is even more crucial.Example, if you made it your goal to get into shape, you take the first step of forward motion by doing your first workout or starting your diet.That first hurdle is the hardest.However to successfully create forward motion over a period of time to make it a habit, you have to consistently stay in forward motion daily.Done daily with enough repetition this can quickly become a habit that will be done with greater ease.Align with your life with a higher purpose and forward motion will be an easier process for you.To move in the direction of your priorities, take consistent action, no matter how small, move forward even you are taking a single step at a time, take new action, even if you if its for a few minutes.Reach big wins through a series of small wins.Every win is one step toward momentum.I encourage you to consi der what small changes you can make starting today that will result in a big difference in your life.Start small and trust that those changes will add up over time, ultimately providing you with significant results.Dig deeperIf you enjoyed this post, you will love Postanly Weekly, my free weekly digest of the best posts about behaviour change that affect health, wealth, and productivity. Join over 50,000 people on a mission to build a better life. Courses Thinking in Models, and Kaizen Habits.This article first appeared on Medium.